Many wounds, whether caused by trauma or resulting from surgical procedures, develop an odor over time. This odor is produced in connection with tissue death and the associated build-up of anaerobic bacteria at the wound site. Wound dressings and bandages can contain sodium bicarbonate to control odor emanating from a wound. The effectiveness of wound dressings and bandages to control odors generally correlates to the amount of sodium bicarbonate present in the wound dressings or bandages. Sodium bicarbonate is a powder and does not naturally adhere to cotton fibers or conventional non-woven wound dressing materials. For this reason, typically sodium bicarbonate is applied to the wound dressing or bandage as an aqueous solution and the dressing or bandage is then dried.
Sodium bicarbonate can be incorporated into a wound dressing only in limited concentrations, up to 2% w/w. At levels above 2%, it has been found that sodium bicarbonate crystallizes and that the adherence to the wound dressing becomes so weak that the sodium bicarbonate tends to fall off the dressing as a powder.